16 Nov 2010, Bucha, Ukraine…Elizabeth Lechleitner/AN
Where communist propaganda once flooded Soviet-era homes through hardwired speakers residents were forbidden to turn off, a Seventh-day Adventist media center last month celebrated 20 years of ministry through those very radios — many of which still sit on kitchen counters and in living rooms across Russia and Eastern Europe.
Hundreds of Adventist and other Protestant leaders, government representatives and broadcast professionals met on the campus of church-run Zaoksky University in Moscow October 24 to commemorate Voice of Hope media center’s impact in Euro-Asia.
The celebration came a year after the Russian parliament noted Voice of Hope’s contribution to the community with its annual “Socially Aware Enterprise” award, marking the first time a religious organization received the annual recognition.
Radio ministry is vital to region, said Voice of Hope speaker-director Sergey Kuzmin. Euro-Asia spans 11 time zones and includes six of the 10/40 Window countries, an area where about two-thirds of the world’s population lives, but only 1 percent is Christian.
“It’s impossible to get to every isolated village, but radio has no boundaries,” Kuzmin said. “It can reach the most remote parts of the region with the gospel.”
The more than one million letters and packages the media center has received since its launch tell the stories of listeners across Euro-Asia. Some come from elderly, homebound listeners who find comfort and a connection with likeminded Christians through the broadcasts. Many listeners say Voice of Hope programming fills a spiritual need that hours of worship in an Orthodox church cannot.
One Russian listener wrote that he felt compelled to attend church, but found Orthodox services — conducted in an ancient Slavic language — empty and alienating. “Plain and convincing” Adventist radio programming, he added, provided him a personal and meaningful connection with God.
Another listener from Belarus wrote to say Voice of Hope programming brings her “joy and peace” after a difficult life — as a child during World War II, she remembers dreaming of one day eating bread with milk. Now, unable to read or leave her home regularly, she finds community through Adventist radio.
With a focus on programs to strengthen families and encourage healthy living, Voice of Hope secured its inaugural 20-minute broadcast from a private home studio in 1990, becoming the first religious station to air programming amid political unrest a year before the Soviet Union collapsed.
Now, from its studios in Tula, just south of Moscow, Voice of Hope provides radio programming on more than 1,000 stations. It’s still noted for many of the characteristics that first earned its place on the air, including a focus on wellbeing. In 1994, the media center expanded the scope of its ministry to offer several hours of television broadcasts per day.
Kuzmin said a 24/7 television channel — a full-fledged Hope Channel Russia — is on Voice of Hope’s horizon. So is a new medium for radio programming distribution — podcasts. Adventist World Radio’s Europe region director, Tihomir Zestic, said AWR’s podcasts are finding a growing audience in the region. Available through the AWR website and iTunes, the Russian podcast alone has nearly 4,000 subscribers. Twenty-four thousand subscribe to the Arabic podcast.
“These are not just people who hit the website and move on, not even those who download one program and never return,” Zestic said. “These people are getting every new edition.”
Voice of Hope’s radio programming, too, has a future online, Kuzmin said. As the media center adopts new technology and expand its mission, however, it will maintain its core radio presence, he said.
“We are happy to have new technology, but radio still works,” Zestic said. “It’s affordable, the equipment is already in place and most of our Bible correspondence school students are a result of radio contact.”
Some 60,000 students are currently enrolled in the Bible correspondence school, with 3,500 new enrollees each year, Kuzmin said.
